December is here, and the new year, with all its promise and excitement, is just around the corner. Renewed energy, a fresh start, new initiatives — are you ready?
While you are surely spending the next few weeks finishing strong — you also want to set in place the groundwork and tools to launch strong in January.
In particular, you want to refine your personal brand, so it will continue to serve you in the new year. An up-to-date and well-defined personal brand helps you get what you want — and to get it faster.
When people know who you are — even before they meet you — they come predisposed to like and trust you. They are aware of your successes and your story. Conversations are richer, and progress is faster.
Does your personal brand need a refresh? Consider these questions:
When people meet you for the first time, are they surprised?
If you aren’t what they expected, perhaps your public brand doesn’t match who you really are. You may also need to clarify (and amplify) your brand if people tell you they can’t imagine why they hadn’t heard of you before. Or they wish they had known about you earlier.
How are you different than you were a year ago?
Are you working towards different goals? Perhaps you achieved what you set out to accomplish in 2022, and now you have set higher goals for 2023. Or you changed jobs and are in a new role. Maybe you’ve done some soul-searching, which has resulted in personal growth and different priorities.
Have you expanded your capabilities?
An important part of your personal brand is your area(s) of expertise. If you’ve acquired new skills in 2022 or successfully taken on new challenges, you will want to update your brand to reflect the expansion.
Is your audience the same?
If you launched offerings into a new market, pivoted to a new niche, or discovered a different type of user who loves your solutions, you may be speaking to different people in 2023 than you did in 2022.
Your audience might also have expanded. If you raised your first round, your audience now includes investors. If your company is growing rapidly, you might need to add employer branding.
Be sure your brand speaks to the people – all the people – who need to hear from you.
Did your company culture evolve?
As you dealt with the issues around coming out of the pandemic, did you make changes to your company culture? Is your leadership style a little different? Review your brand to ensure it still accurately reflects the ethos of your company.
Are you telling different stories?
As a leader, you tell stories that bring everyone into your mission and vision, help them appreciate the traction you’ve achieved, and get them excited about the future. If your stories have evolved over the past year, you might want to tweak your brand, so everything is in alignment.
Want Help Updating or Defining Your Brand?
If you prefer one-on-one help with your brand, you can arrange a private consultation through sales@proresource.com.
You’ll be delighted at how easy we make it. You will:
- Use our proven branding framework
- Take advantage of our content formulas
- Tap into our hashtag research
- Get our master list of 650 LinkedIn thought leaders and influencers who have already built large audiences
We offer consultations to help you think through what you want your brand to be, as well as how to express your brand using LinkedIn. Get in touch today!